Paige Aleah

Well, the time has come. I am on the airplane headed back to Phoenix from Virginia. I have been thinking about where I am even going to start blogging, and I am still not sure. I had every intention to blog frequently while I was away, but that obviously did not happen. Here are some brief highlights of the last few weeks:

{First and foremost:} Jackson Wesley Brinkley was born on January 19 weighing in at 7 lbs. 12 ounces 21 inches long. He was born with a full head of dark hair. YAY for more brunettes in the family :)  I had the privilege and honor of getting to hold him for a few short days before I had to leave. You really can’t even fathom how small a newborn baby is until you hold one. I had thought Tate was just about as small as they get, and then I held Jackson. Oh my! He is just gorgeous, and it was SO neat to see Adriane and Ben hold their second precious baby. It was also quite a moment as Tate met her baby brother for the very first time. I am sure it still hasn’t quite hit her that she will now be living under the same roof as this little guy, but she seemed to really like him for the moment.

{TATE MACKENZIE} aka TaterMack! I had a complete blast with this girl. She has personality plus and probably the cutest facial expressions that I have ever seen in a 19-month-old little girl. She has started talking, and it was a BLAST getting her to say certain things and answer certain questions. We would ask “Tate, do you love Paige?” and she would say, “YEAH!”  It was just the most adorable thing you could ever imagine. Every morning when I would see her, she would be a little uneasy of me, but after a few minutes of warming up, we were golden. I think I walked away with just under 1000 photos from this trip, and the greater amount of them are of Tate. I definitely got a very good taste of what it is like to have a child around, and I loved every second of it.

{My Quilt} As many of you know, I have wanted to take some of my t-shirts from CBU and make a quilt out of them. I don’t wear t-shirts very often, and I definitely did not need one for every day of the month. I looked into paying someone to make the quilt for me, and for what I wanted, I would have had to pay around $300!!! So Aunt Sherry and I decided to tackle the task and see if we could conquer the quilt !!! I will admit that Aunt Sherry helped me out a lot, with measurements, the sewing machine, and explaining what I needed to do next. But a few hours of labor, a couple pricks from pins and needles later, I have my wonderful memory :) I will post pictures of my masterpiece, because I am quite proud of it :)  Oh and just in case you were worried, I fit the quilt into my suitcase and I was STILL under my weight limit. That was a HUGE accomplishment!!!

{Cooking} So I knew before I went to Virginia that I wanted to learn as much as I could from Aunt Sherry and her kitchen. Aunt Sherry knows how to COOK and cook extremely WELL. Due to sickness and changes of a lot of plans from day to day, I didn’t get to cook with her as much as I would have liked, but I definitely got some practice in and learned quite a bit. She is such a natural in the kitchen, I DREAM of being like that someday ;)  I did assist in making many different meals through out the trip, and I am excited to go home and get my cooking on!

{Believing God} I know I have already blogged a little about this, but I am reading Believing God by Beth Moore. I have not finished it yet, I was too busy chasing and playing with babies J but it was such a great read while I was away. It really encouraged and challenged me and my true faith and belief in the Lord. I am excited to continue reading and blogging about it.

{External Hard Drive} You all will be happy to know that I broke down and actually bought an external hard drive. You are probably laughing that this is such a big deal to me, but it really is! I would MUCH rather spend that money on a new outfit or a new pair of shoes, but after a couple of lectures from Jace, I decided to make it happen. So all 14,000 pictures from my iphoto will always be available and my computer (hopefully) will not crash and die anytime soon.

{Family} More than anything else, I am so thankful for the time spend with my family. I don’t get to see that side of the family very often, and it was just so refreshing to be around them for a while. I love the way they live, their stories, their interesting saying and stories from the countries that they have lived in, the way they create memories. It was all just wonderful. I never once felt like I was a burden or in the way. (Hopefully that was accurate! Haha) But in all seriousness, it was just wonderful to be around them and learn from them. They were so incredibly welcoming and encouraging to me, as I am in such a weird state of my life. I was able to be open and honest with them and they were able to point me exactly where I needed to go. I look forward to going back very soon. 

Virginia, I loved you! I hope to see you again someday soon...